Archbishop Thomas Murphy High School - Parent Association Web Site

At AMHS you’ll be the cat’s meow when you roll into school in sweats. Send your Parents to the Parent Association meeting – it’s the only place to get a 21 Century Cat’s Pajamas Pass!

Parents, Students, and Teachers:

‘Cat’s Pajamas’ is a Parent Association sponsored program.

The objective is to reward students whose parents attend the PA monthly meetings which are held the third Monday of the month.

One Pass per parent will be given out at the meeting.
The Pass is not valid unless signed by a current PA Board member.
The recipient list will be given to Jerry Zander, Director of Student Life.
Students will maintain possession of the Pass during the day for Teachers’ inspection.
Passes are only valid for one day’s use.
Passes will be turned into the office at the end of the day.

Students, please ensure that you understand the following:

The Pass is for Sweats or Knee-Length Athletic Shorts, not pajamas
Other school decency dress codes still apply
The Pass is not to be used on Liturgy or Special Occasion Days
The Pass is associated with your family name and student will be held accountable for it’s proper use and return
Students are encouraged to use the Pass the Tuesday following the PA meeting if possible; otherwise, the Pass has an expiration date of the following month.

Please note, the ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ is intended to be a low-maintenance reward program. Improper use, distractive clothing, or unnecessary monitoring by teachers will result in immediate discontinuation. Please address any concerns to the Parent Association.

Stephanni Hoza ~ 425.252.8780

It means 'a wonderful or remarkable person or thing'. But it nearly always implies stylishness and newness - it's 'the greatest thing since sliced bread'. The cat's pajamas (and the cat's meow, the cat's whiskers), was a very popular expression in the 1920s, associated with the daring and unconventional jazz-age flappers.

The Dictionary of American Slang lists more "cat" variants: "the cat's eyebrow, ankle, adenoids, tonsils, galoshes, cufflinks, roller skates, and cradle." Stuart Flexner, in I Hear America Talking, discusses similar expressions--"just about any combination of an animal, fish, or fowl with a part of the body or article of clothing that was inappropriate for it: the bee's knees, the snake's hips, the clam's garter, the eel's ankle, the elephant's instep, the tiger's spots, the leopard's stripes, the sardine's whiskers, the pig's wings.“

Other sources list "the kipper's knickers, the duck's quack, the gnat's elbow, the elephant's (fallen) arches, the bullfrog's beard, the canary's tusks, the cuckoo's chin, the butterfly's book, the caterpillar's kimono, the turtle's neck."

Except for the bee's knees which rhymes, the other expressions don't make much sense. A cat's persistent meow and a duck's quack are annoying to some people, and they don't exactly express approval and satisfaction. At least a cat does have a meow and whiskers, but pajamas, galoshes, or eyebrows, no.

Reasonable explanations include the fact that cat's whiskers was the term for hair-thin wires used in tuning wireless crystal sets, and pajamas were a relatively new fashion in the 1920s.

Send your Parents to the Parent Association meeting – it’s the only place to get a 21 Century Cat’s Pajamas Pass!